summertime
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Feuillet astistes infosTRANSCRIPT
feuillet.qxp 2009-08-03 17:26 Page 1
Summertime, and the livin' is easy Fish are jumpin' and the cotton is high Oh! Your Daddy's rich and your Ma is good lookin' So, hush little baby, don't you cry . . .
One of these mornin's you're gonna rise up singin' Then you'll spread your wings, and you'll take to the sky But 'till that mornin' there's a nothin' can harm you, with Daddy and Mammy standin' by . . .
But 'till that mornin' there's a nothin' can harm you, with Daddy and Mammy standin' by . . .
Standing by . . .
Music by George Gershwin Lyrics by Ira Gershwin and Du Bose Heyward,1933
feuillet.qxp 2009-08-03 17:26 Page 2
Next to the Beatles, the Zombies may
have been the most mature and sophisti-
cated songwriters of the early British
Invasion. Unlike competing acts like the
Kinks and the Yardbirds, the Zombies
actually knew the meaning of the terms
minor key and modulation. This was a big
deal back in late 1964/early 1965, when
the Zombies were briefly thrust upon
the international scene with two smash
singles - "She's Not There" and "Tell Her
No."
Somehow, the single from that LP - "Time
of the Season" - slowly but inexorably
took off and became a major hit, more
than a year after the group had already
broken up.
The Zombies were led by keyboard whiz
Rod Argent, but about half of the songs
(and some quite good ones!) were written
by bassist Chris White. Frontman Colin
Blunstone contributed fantastic white-
soul tenor vocals, and Argent's vocal
harmony arrangements were superb.
In the latter half of the 20th century there
were three pre-eminently influential
folk/country guitar players: Merle Travis,
Chet Atkins, and Arthel "Doc" Watson, a
flat-picking genius from Deep Gap, NC.
When Watson was recorded with his family
and friends in Folkways' Old Time Music at
Clarence Ashley's, people have remained
in awe of this gentle blind man who sings
and picks with a pure and emotional
authenticity.
David Grisman is normally associated with
the bluegrass wing of country music, but
his music owes almost as much to jazz as it
does to traditional American folk influences.
Because he couldn't think of what to call his
unique, highly intricate, harmonically
advanced hybrid of acoustic bluegrass, folk,
and jazz without leaning toward one idiom
or another, he offhandedly decided to call it
"dawg music" a name which, curiously
enough, has stuck.
The Zombies
CD2 - Track 12
From the album “The Zombies”
www.warr.org/zombies.html
Photo: nostalgiacentral.com
Doc WatsonDavid Grisman
30 3
CD1 - Track 1
From the album “Doc and Dawg”
www.docsguitar.com
www.dawgnet.com
Photos: timbullard.com / Jay Blakesberg
feuillet.qxp 2009-08-03 17:26 Page 3
The only vocalist in history to net Grammy
Awards in three different categories (jazz,
pop, and R&B, respectively), Al Jarreau
was born in Milwaukee, WI, on March 12,
1940. The son of a vicar, he earned his first
performing experience singing in the
church choir. After receiving his master's
degree in psychology, Jarreau pursued a
career as a social worker, but eventually
he decided to relocate to Los Angeles and
try his hand in show business, playing
small clubs throughout the West Coast.
He recorded an LP in the mid-'60s, but
largely remained an unknown, not reenter-
ing the studio for another decade. Upon
signing to Reprise, Jarreau resurfaced in
1975 with We Got By, earning acclaim for
his sophisticated brand of vocalese and
winning positive comparison to the likes of
Billy Eckstine and Johnny Mathis. After
1976's Glow, Jarreau issued the following
year's Look to the Rainbow, a two-disc live
set that reached the Top 50 on the U.S.
album charts.
Tori Amos (born Myra Ellen Amos) was
one of several female singer/songwriters
who combined the stark lyrical attack of
alternative rock with a distinctly '70s
musical approach. Her music falls
between the orchestrated meditations of
Kate Bush and the stripped-down poetics
of Joni Mitchell. In addition to reviving
the singer/songwriter traditions of the
'70s, Amos revived the piano as a rock &
roll instrument. With her 1992 album
Little Earthquakes, Amos built a dedicated
following that continued to expand with
her second album, Under the Pink.
The full-length follow-up to Little
Earthquakes, was a bigger hit, selling
over a million copies and launching the
minor hit singles "God" and "Cornflake
Girl." Two years later, Amos delivered her
third album, Boys for Pele, her most
ambitious and difficult record to date.
The album debuted at number two and
quickly went platinum.
Al Jarreau Tori Amos
4 29
CD1 - Track 2
From the album “Tenderness”
www.aljarreau.com
Photo: starpulse.com
CD2 - Track 11
From the album “Under the covers”
www.toriamos.com
Photo: starpulse.com
feuillet.qxp 2009-08-03 17:26 Page 4
Ray Charles was the musician most
responsible for developing soul music.
Singers like Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson
also did a great deal to pioneer the form,
but Charles did even more to devise a new
form of black pop by merging '50s R&B
with gospel-powered vocals, adding
plenty of flavor from contemporary jazz,
blues, and (in the '60s) country.
Then there was his singing; his style was
among the most emotional and easily
identifiable of any 20th century performer,
up there with the likes of Elvis and Billie
Holiday.
He was also a superb keyboard player,
arranger, and bandleader. The brilliance of
his 1950s and '60s work, however, can't
obscure the fact that he made few classic
tracks after the mid-'60s, though he
recorded often and performed until the
year before his death.
Ella Fitzgerald's voice was satin to Louis
Armstrong's sandpaper, but when you put
them together on a single song, their
chemistry was unimpeachable. Though they
don't harmonize much (Armstrong's voice
wasn't built for harmony), Ella's dignified
swing and flashes of teasing wit play off
Satchmo's gritty, good-humored roar symbi-
otically.
Ella Fitzgerald personified jazz for more
than 60 years and, perhaps more signifi-
cantly, earned the undying affection of a
mass audience comparable to that of any
pop icon.
Louis Armstrong was the greatest of all
Jazz musicians. He defined what it was to
play Jazz. His amazing technical abilities,
the joy and spontaneity, and amazingly
quick, inventive musical mind still dominate
Jazz to this day.
Ray Charles Ella FitzgeraldLouis Armstrong
28 5
CD2 - Track 10
From the album “Porgy and Bess”
www.raycharles.com
Photo: starpulse.com
CD1 - Track 3
From the album “Porgy and Bess”
www.ellafitzgerald.com
www.satchmo.net
Photos: starpulse.com
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Born in 1970 in Ankara, Turkey, Fazýl Say
studied piano and composition at the
Ankara State Conservatory. At the age of
seventeen he was awarded a scholarship
that enabled him to study for five years
with David Levine at the Robert Schumann
Institute in Düsseldorf.
From 1992 to 1995 he continued his studies
at the Berlin Conservatory. In 1994, he was
the winner of the Young Concert Artists
International Auditions, which gave a rapid
start to his international career.
In the summer of 2005 the Franco-German
television channel Arte shot a full-length
portrait of Fazil Say in Istanbul, Aspendos,
Munich, and other places, which was
broadcasted in early 2006 and will appear
on Arthaus as DVD. In 2005 a DVD
production of his work for chorus and
orchestra Nazim was filmed in Aspendos,
which has been released in Fall 2006.
Oscar Peterson was one of the greatest
piano players of all time. A pianist with
phenomenal technique on the level of his
idol, Art Tatum, Peterson's speed, dexterity,
and ability to swing at any tempo were
amazing. Very effective in small groups,
jam sessions, and in accompanying
singers, O.P. was at his absolute best when
performing unaccompanied solos. His orig-
inal style did not fall into any specific
idiom. Like Erroll Garner and George
Shearing, Peterson's distinctive playing
formed during the mid to late '40s and fell
somewhere between swing and bop.
Peterson was criticized through the years
because he used so many notes, didn't
evolve much since the 1950s, and recorded
a remarkable number of albums. Certainly
it can be said that Peterson played 100
notes when other pianists might have used
ten, but all 100 usually fit, and there is
nothing wrong with showing off technique
when it serves the music.
Fazil Say Oscar Peterson
6 27
CD1 - Track 4
From the album “Gershwin / Fazil Say, New York”
www.fazilsay.net
Photo: Christian Steiner
CD2 - Track 9
From the album “Oscar Peterson in Russia” (live)
www.collectionscanada.ca/oscarpeterson
Photo: Paul Hoeffler
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Lou Rawls was a consummate master of
African-American vocal music whose versa-
tility helped him adaptto the changing
musical times over and over again while
always remaining unmistakably himself.
Blessed with a four-octave vocal range,
Rawls' smooth, classy elegance -- sort of a
cross between Sam Cooke and Nat King
Cole -- permeated nearly everything he
sang, yet the fire of his early gospel days
was never too far from the surface. He
made his name as a crooner, first by singing
jazz standards, then moving on to soul in
the mid-'60s, and capped the most commer-
cial phase of his career with a productive
stint at Philadelphia International during
the latter half of the '70s.
Even after his days as a chart presence
were over, Rawls remained a highly visible
figure on the American cultural landscape,
pursuing an acting and voice-over career in
addition to his continued concert appear-
ances, and doing extensive charity work on
behalf of the United Negro College Fund.
One of the many jazzmen who started out
playing hard bop but went electric during
the fusion era, Joe Sample was, in the
late '50s, a founding member of the Jazz
Crusaders along with trombonist Wayne
Henderson, tenor saxman Wilton Felder,
and drummer Stix Hooper. The Crusaders'
debt to Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers
wasn't hard to miss -- except that the
L.A.-based unit had no trumpeter, and
became known for its unique tenor/
trombone front line.
Sample, a hard-swinging player who could
handle chordal and modal/scalar improvi-
sation equally well, stuck to the acoustic
piano during the Crusaders' early years
but would place greater emphasis on
electric keyboards when the band turned
to jazz-funk in the early '70s and dropped
"Jazz" from its name.
Though he'd recorded as a trio pianist on
1969's obscure Fancy Dance, 1978's
Rainbow Seeker was often described as
his first album as a leader.
Lou Rawls Joe Sample
26 7
CD2 - Track 8
From the album “Tobacco Road”
www.lourawls.com
Photo: bobpitch.com/anon/Baudolino
CD1 - Track 5
From the album “Invitation”
www.vervemusicgroup.com/joesample
Photo: Dragan Tasic
feuillet.qxp 2009-08-03 17:26 Page 7
Billy Stewart was born March 24, 1937,
basically grew up singing in a musical
family. He joined his mother's group, the
Stewart Gospel Singers, as a teenager,
and won a local talent show singing George
Gershwin's song "Summertime."
While appearing in a concert in Washington,
singer Bo Diddley discovered Billy while he
was playing his piano backstage at the
Capital Arena Theater, and asked him to
join his band. While on this venture, Billy
developed his talents by teaching himself
to play the organ, bass, and drums.
He got an opportunity to cut some sides
during his stay with the band and recorded
a song entitled "Billy's Blues" in 1956. He
signed with the label Okeh in 1957 and
recorded "Billy's "Heartache" and "Baby,
You Are My Only Love" with local group
called the Marquees, which featured a
very young Marvin Gaye.
Despite a relatively brief career (he first
came to notice as a sideman at age 29 in
1955, formally launched a solo career at
33 in 1960, and was dead at 40 in 1967),
saxophonist John Coltrane was among
the most important, and most controver-
sial, figures in jazz. It seems amazing that
his period of greatest activity was so
short, not only because he recorded
prolifically, but also because, taking advan-
tage of his fame, the record companies
that recorded him as a sideman in the
1950s frequently reissued those record-
ings under his name and there has been
a wealth of posthumously released
material as well.
Since Coltrane was a protean player who
changed his style radically over the course
of his career, this has made for much
confusion in his discography and in
appreciations of his playing. There remains
a critical divide between the adherents
of his earlier, more conventional (if still
highly imaginative) work and his later,
more experimental work.
Billy Stewart John Coltrane
8 25
CD1 - Track 6
From the album “Unbeleivable”
www.soul-patrol.com/soul/billystewart.html
Photo: starpulse.com
CD2 - Track 7
From the album “The Very Best of John Coltrane”
www.johncoltrane.com
Photo: Lee Tanner
feuillet.qxp 2009-08-03 17:26 Page 8
The most groove-oriented act in the mid-
'90s female-fronted electronica crowd,
Morcheeba relies on the sweet, fluid
vocals of Skye Edwards and a laid-back mix
of fusion, funk, and blues produced by
brothers Paul and Ross Godfrey, on
beats/scratches and guitar/keyboards,
respectively.
The trio was formed in 1995 when the
Godfreys decided to go out on their own
after co-producing six tracks for David
Byrne's album Feelings. They submitted
several tapes of their instrumental demos
to labels around London, but received little
interest in return. After hooking up with
vocalist Edwards at a party, however, their
music began to gel and Morcheeba signed
to the China label.
Big Calm followed in 1998 and Fragments
of Freedom was released two years later.
Charango appeared in 2002 and featured
guest appearances from Lambchop's Kurt
Wagner and rapper Slick Rick.
Morcheeba
24 9
A harmonically advanced cool-toned and
subtle guitarist, Jim Hall has been an
inspiration to many guitarists, including
some (such as Bill Frisell) who sound
nothing like him. Hall attended the
Cleveland Institute of Music and studied
classical guitar in Los Angeles with
Vincente Gomez. He was an original
member of the Chico Hamilton Quintet
(1955-1956), and during 1956-1959 was
with the Jimmy Giuffre Three. A self-titled
collaboration with Pat Metheny followed
in 1999.
One of the most original guitarists from
the '80s onward, Pat Metheny is a chance-
taking player who has gained great popu-
larity but also taken some wild left turns.
His records with the Pat Metheny Group
are difficult to describe but managed
to be both accessible and original,
stretching the boundaries of jazz and
making Metheny famous enough so he
could perform whatever type of music
he wants without losing his audience.
Jim HallPath Metheny
CD2 - Track 6
From the album “Jim Hall and Pat Metheny”
www.jimhallmusic.com
www.patmethenygroup.com
Photos: starpulse.com
CD1 - Track 7
From the album “Red Hot + Rhapsody / The Gershwin Groove”
www.morcheeba.net
Photo: starpulse.com
feuillet.qxp 2009-08-03 17:26 Page 9
Formed in Long Beach, CA, in 1988 as a
garage punk band, Sublime grew to fame
in the mid-'90s on the back of the Cali
punk explosion engendered by Green Day
and the Offspring, though Sublime mixed
up their punk rage with reggae and ska
influences. The band released just two
albums during its first seven years, finally
finding a hit with its self-titled third one.
It was Sublime's last, however, as lead
singer Brad Nowell died in May 1996, just
two months before the album's release.
The trio which comprised Sublime vocal-
ist/guitarist Nowell, bassist Eric Wilson,
and drummer Bud Gaugh played their first
gig on the 4th of July 1988 at a small
Long Beach club (a show that sparked the
infamous Peninsula Riot). The group
began aggressively touring around the
area with an increasingly substantial
following, especially among the
surf/skate beach crowd. After four years
of concentrating strictly on live shows,
Sublime's first album (40 Oz. to Freedom)
was recorded in 1992.
One of the most enigmatic and talented Soul
men of all time, Bobby Womack has been a
sort of Soul Forrest Gump, serving as a link
from 50s Gospel to 60s Soul to 70s Rock and
to some of the greatest musicians in each
genre.
The Womack Brothers group was discovered
by Gospel/Soul legend Sam Cooke, who
redubbed them the Valentinos and trans-
formed them into a teenage secular vocal
group. By the early 60s they were touring
with James Brown and scoring on the R&B
charts with their first hit, "Lookin' For A Love."
Cooke's death in 1964 sent the group on a
spiral from which it would never recover.
Also, Womack encountered some public fall-
out when married Cooke's widow less than a
year later (even more ironic was that brother
Cecil ultimately married Cooke's daughter,
Linda, who became his partner in the popular
writing/singing group Womack & Womack).
Sublime Bobby Womackand the Roots
10 23
CD1- Track 8
From the album “Doin' time” (Bradley Version)
www.mtv.com/music/artist/sublime/artist.jhtml
Photo: starpulse.com
CD2 - Track 5
From the album “Red Hot + Rhapsody / The Gershwin Groove”
www.soultracks.com/bobby_womack.htm
Photo: urbanmarketinglasvegas.com
feuillet.qxp 2009-08-03 17:26 Page 10
Mongo Santamaria enjoyed a long and
successful career in Latin music. His
recordings and concert performances
ranged from the authentic percussion music
of Afro-Cuban religious rituals through to
Latin-jazz reworkings of American jazz and
pop hits.
His song Afro-Blue became a contemporary
jazz standard, best-known in the
coruscating version by saxophonist John
Coltrane. His own adaptation of Herbie
Hancock’s Watermelon Man provided the
biggest hit of his career in 1963, and is
regarded as a classic artefact on the
Lounge Music scene.
He graduated to the famous Tropicana
Club with bands like Conjunto Matamoros
and Conjunto Azul, then moved to New York
in 1950. He was able to pursue his interest
in American jazz at its epicentre, while
gaining valuable exposure playing with two
of the most important Latin band leaders in
the city, Perez Prado and later Tito Puente.
Herbie Hancock will always be one of the
most revered and controversial figures in
jazz -- just as his employer/mentor Miles
Davis was when he was alive. Unlike Miles,
who pressed ahead relentlessly and never
looked back until near the very end,
Hancock has cut a zigzagging forward path,
shuttling between almost every develop-
ment in electronic and acoustic jazz and
R&B over the last third of the 20th century.
Starting out as a folk-rock poet and vocalist
who flew onto the pop music scene in the
late '60s, Joni Mitchell bloomed into one of
the most adventurous and influential
singer-songwriters of the last 40 years,
with thousands of musicians, from pop
stars like Prince and Shawn Colvin to jazz
luminaries like Herbie Hancock and
Cassandra Wilson, hailing her as a cultural
hero and artistic role model.
Mongo SantamariaHerbie HancockJoni Mitchell
22 11
CD2 - Track 4
From the album “Herbie Hancock / Gershwin's World”
www.herbiehancock.com - www.jonimitchell.com
Photos: starpulse.com
CD1 - Track 9
From the album “La Bamba”
www.discogs.com/artist/Mongo+Santamaria
Photo: starpulse.com
feuillet.qxp 2009-08-03 17:26 Page 11
The Platters were one of the top vocal groups
of the 1950's, selling 53 million records and
being among the first doo-wop groups to be
inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame
in 1990.
The Platters were a successful vocal group
of the early rock and roll era. Their distinctive
sound was a bridge between the pre-rock Tin
Pan Alley tradition, and the burgeoning new
genre. The act went through many personnel
changes, with the most successful incarnation
comprising lead tenor Tony Williams, David
Lynch, Paul Robi, Herb Reed, and Zola Taylor.
Under Buck Ram's guidance, the Platters
recorded seven singles for Federal in the
R&B/gospel style, scoring a few minor
regional hits on the West Coast. One song
recorded during their Federal tenure, Only
You (And You Alone), originally written byRam
for the Ink Spots was deemed unreleasable
by the label.
The Platters
12 21
No figure in 20th century American classical
music had as prominent or controversial a
career - or did more to sell classical music to
the general public as something genuinely
exciting, and worth getting into a sweat over -
than Leonard Bernstein.
For more than 30 years, from his assumption
of the post of Music Director of the New York
Philharmonic in 1958 until the final concerts
that he conducted in obviously failing health
near the end of his life in 1990, he was the
most prominent and widely recognized
American-born conductor in the world, and
the dominant personality in American classical
music as both a conductor and, to a lesser
degree, a composer.
A flamboyant public figure, he burst three
different times on the musical world - twice
in classical with a rush of success on
Broadway in between - in a blaze of glory, in
the space of 15 years.
Leonard Bernstein
CD1 - Track 10
From the album “Golden Hits”
www.herbreedandtheplatters.com
Photo: Reese Chan
CD2 - Track 3
From the album “George Gershwin”
www.leonardbernstein.com
Photo: starpulse.com
feuillet.qxp 2009-08-03 17:26 Page 12
Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan) grew up in
jazz talent-rich Baltimore in the 1920s. As a
young teenager, Holiday served the beginning
part of her so-called "apprenticeship" by
singing along with records by Bessie Smith
or Louis Armstrong in after-hours jazz clubs.
When Holiday's mother, Sadie Fagan, moved
to New York in search of a better job, Billie
eventually went with her. She made her true
singing debut in obscure Harlem nightclubs
and borrowed her professional name Billie
Holiday from screen star Billie Dove.
Although she never underwent any technical
training and never even so much as learned
how to read music, Holiday quickly became
an active participant in what was then one of
the most vibrant jazz scenes in the country.
She would move from one club to another,
working for tips.
She would sometimes sing with the accompa-
niment of a house piano player while other
times she would work as part of a group of
performers.
Billie Holiday
20 13
Punk's premier cover artists, Me First and
the Gimme Gimmes are a conglomerate of
some of the most recognizable faces in
new-school punk. Drawn together by a
mutual love of '60s and '70s music, the
Gimme Gimmes work exclusively as a
cover band. Their repertoire include songs
from such acts as Neil Diamond, Billy Joel
and John Denver.
With an ever-changing cast of characters,
singer Spike Slawson (of the Swingin'
Utters) originally formed the Gimme
Gimmes in 1995, drawing on the talents
of NOFX bassist Fat Mike, Lagwagon
singer/guitarist Joey Cape, No Use for
a Name guitarist Chris Shiflett (aka
Jackson), and Lagwagon drummer Dave
Raun. Never originally aiming to put out
a record, the band made appearances on
punk compilation albums through much of
the year. In 1997, however, they began
releasing singles named after the singer
they had covered.
Me First and theGimme Gimmes
CD2 - Track 2
From the album “Strange Fruit”
www.cmgworldwide.com/music/holiday
Photo: starpulse.com
CD1 - Track 11
From the album “Me First and the Gimme Gimmes - Are a drag”
www.gimmegimmes.com
Photo: starpulse.com
feuillet.qxp 2009-08-03 17:26 Page 13
Miles Davis took an all-inclusive, constantly
restless approach to jazz that had begun to
fall out of favor by the time of his death,
even as it earned him controversy during
his lifetime. It was hard to recognize
the bebop acolyte of Charlie Parker in the
flamboyantly dressed leader with the hair
extensions who seemed to keep one foot
on a wah-wah pedal and one hand on an
electric keyboard in his later years. But he
did much to popularize jazz, reversing the
trend away from commercial appeal that
bebop began. And whatever the fripperies
and explorations, he retained an ability to
play moving solos that endeared him to
audiences and demonstrated his affinity
with tradition.
At a time when jazz is inclining toward
academia and repertory orchestras rather
than moving forward, he is a reminder of
the music's essential quality of boundless
invention, using all available means.
Miles Davis
14 19
Both beautiful and an extremely talented
singer and songwriter, Anita Baker was
nearly a no show for the world of music.
She had been singing in various groups
and choirs in her native Detroit since she
was a teenager, but while she was loved
locally, she had received enough negative
reviews from record label execs that, at
age 22, she was ready to quit music for
good.
In many ways, it is difficult to believe
Anita Baker has only released five
albums, as her effect on Soul radio has
been immense. Along with Luther
Vandross, she virtually created Urban
Adult Contemporary as a viable radio
format in the 80s, and, while her music
was more sophisticated and orchestral
than today's neo-Soul women such as
Jill Scott and India.Arie, they owe a huge
debt to Baker for demonstrating that a
mature soul audience would buy CDs
and for creating a pathway for artists to
reach that audience.
Anita Baker
CD1 - Track 12
From the album “Miles Davis-Porgy and Bess”
www.milesdavis.com
Photo: starpulse.com
CD2 - Track 1
From the album “Cyrus Chestnut”
www.soultracks.com/anita_baker.htm
Photo: starpulse.com
feuillet.qxp 2009-08-03 17:26 Page 14
As the leader of Genesis in the early '70s, Peter
Gabriel helped move progressive rock to new
levels of theatricality. Following his departure
from Genesis in 1976, Peter Gabriel began work
on the first of three consecutive eponymously
titled albums; each record was named Peter
Gabriel, he said, as if they were editions of the
same magazine. With his first eponymous solo
album in 1977, he began exploring darker, more
cerebral territory, incorporating avant-garde,
electronic, and worldbeat influences into his
music.
Larry Adler was an internationally renowned
harmonica virtuoso whose jazz and European
classical interpretations brought unprecedented
attention and acclaim to the humble mouth
organ. His last great project was the all star
tribute album "The Glory of Gershwin". He
passed away in London on August 7, 2001 at
the age of 87.
Peter GabrielLarry Adler
18 15
Afro-funk, reggae, samba, salsa, gospel,
jazz, Zairean rumba, zouk, and makossa are
combined through the music of soulful,
Benin-born, Paris-based vocalist Angélique
Kidjo.
Since the release of her self-produced debut
solo album, Pretty, in 1988, Kidjo has been
embraced by the international press. Kidjo's
albums have been strengthened by contribu-
tions from top-notch guest musicians and
producers.
Parakou, her first internationally distributed
album, featured jazz keyboardist Jasper
van't Hof, the leader of Pili Pili, a Holland-
based Afro-jazz band with whom Kidjo had
performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival in
1987. Logozo, recorded in Miami in 1991
and produced by Joe Galdo of Miami Sound
Machine, featured Branford Marsalis on
saxophone. Marsalis later performed on
Kidjo's album Oremi.
Angélique Kidjo
CD1 - Track 16
From the album “The Glory Of Gershwin”
www.petergabriel.com
Photo Peter Gabriel: Yoan-Loic Faure
Larry Adler: Starpulse.com
CD1 - Track 13
From the album “Amazing Grace”
www.kidjo.com
Photo: Joshua Jordan
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For years, Joplin's life had been a roller coaster
of drug addiction, alcoholism, and volatile
personal relationships, documented in several
biographies. Musically, however, things were on
the upswing shortly before her death, as she
assembled a better, more versatile backing
outfit, the Full Tilt Boogie Band, for her final
album, Pearl (ably produced by Paul Rothchild).
Joplin was sometimes criticized for screeching
at the expense of subtlety, but Pearl was solid
evidence of her growth as a mature, diverse
stylist who could handle blues, soul, and
folk-rock. "Mercedes Benz," "Get It While You
Can," and Kris Kristofferson's "Me and Bobby
McGee" are some of her very best tracks.
Tragically, she died before the album's release,
overdosing on heroin in a Hollywood hotel in
October 1970. "Me and Bobby McGee" became
a posthumous number one single in 1971,
and thus the song with which she is most
frequently identified.
Kenny G has long been the musician many
jazz listeners love to hate. A phenomenally
successful instrumentalist whose recordings
make the pop charts, Kenny G's sound has
been a staple on adult contemporary and
smooth jazz radio stations since the mid-'80s,
making him a household name. Kenny G is a
fine player with an attractive sound (influ-
enced a bit by Grover Washington, Jr.) who
often caresses melodies, putting a lot of
emotion into his solos.
George Benson is simply one of the greatest
guitarists in jazz history, but he is also an
amazingly versatile musician, and that
frustrates to no end critics who would paint
him into a narrow bop box. He can play in
just about any style -- from swing to bop to
R&B to pop -- with supreme taste, a beautiful
rounded tone, terrific speed, a marvelous
sense of logic in building solos, and, always,
an unquenchable urge to swing.
Janis Joplin Kenny GGeorge Benson
16 17
CD1 - Track 14
From the album “Live at Winterland ‘68 “
www.officialjanis.com
Photo: starpulse.com
CD1 - Track 15
From the album “Kenny G. / Classics in the key of G”
www.kennyg.com / www.georgebenson.com
Photos: starpulse.com
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